High-tech architecture

High-tech architecture progress and evolution.

High-tech architecture

High-tech is an architectural style that developed during the seventies. It takes its name from the book: The Industrial Style and Source Book for The Home, published in 1978 by Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin.

The book shows abundant examples of works where industrialized materials prevail, particularly used in ceilings, floors, and walls.

Another term used to identify this style is Late Modernism, however, initially, High Tech architecture implied a revitalization of the Modern Movement; a natural development of the preceding ideas but supported by innovation and technology. This period bridges the gap between the Modern Movement and Postmodernism.; it hints at one of those gray periods where there is no clear boundary between the end of one period and the beginning of another. It could be said that a style that was dying like the Modern Movement is reacquired, it's reinterpreted by giving it a strong technological image and it's launched persisting until the present. His best artist is Norman Foster

There was a growing disillusionment in modern architecture about the progress and evolution of that style. The consummation of the civic development systems proposed by Le Corbusier led to a terribly monotonous megacity. Further when they were carried out in a standardized way. The enthusiasm for the construction of inexpensive buildings led to the realization of buildings with extremely low completion quality. Many of the designed residential neighborhoods degenerated into sites of social disintegration, violence, and crime throughout the world. As a consequence, people became disillusioned with the image of progress that was proposed to them, and the mistake that had been made began to be recognized in the Western world.

In any case, the development of Modern Architecture prevailed and society appropriated modern aesthetics. It also took elements of the Metabolist Movement of the 1960s where technology went to the extreme of imagining science fiction buildings and cities. In these ideas, the Archigram group and Japanese architects enrolled in Metabolism stood out, such as Kenzō Tange, Kiyonori Kikutake, Kishō Kurokawa, and others. This was to be expected as modern buildings were very soft and flexible and the novelty of their aesthetic appearance had been adopted. High tech is an answer to this and creates a very new aesthetic: glorifying the fascination for continuous technological innovation.

Objectives

• High Tech architecture is based on many themes typical of Modern Architecture, which is appropriated by reworking and developing based on the latest trends. The main objectives of High Tech architecture consist of a creative game of creating anything new showing the complexity of the technique.

• Modern architecture struggled to rebel against established canons to create a new aesthetic. High Tech architecture continues that rebellious attitude. In the book: " High-Tech: The Industrial Style and Source Book for The Home ", Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin discuss the High Tech aesthetic, where they use emphatic expressions such as "... your parents might find insulting ... "(NDT: your parents will likely find it insulting). This spirit adequately demonstrates the rebellious attitude.
• Kron and Slesin went much further (when they coined the name of the movement in the book) explaining the term High Tech as that used in architectural circles to describe an ever-increasing number of houses and public buildings with a crudely technological aspect (NDT: "nuts -and-bolts-exposed-pipes technological look "). In any case, High Tech has been a benchmark in current modern architecture, as is the example of the Agbar tower in Barcelona.

Features

• The main characteristics of High Tech architecture are very varied, including the exhibition of technical and functional components of the building, a relatively orderly arrangement, and frequent use of prefabricated components. Glass walls and steel structures are very popular in this style. These characteristics combined, generated an industrial aesthetic. The technique, in some aspects, implied the base of the aesthetic foundation of the constructions.

• It is important to note that the technical elements shown to generate the industrial aesthetics were not only for aesthetic purposes but also for functional ones. They respond to a project requirement by solving design problems. They are only functions, those that were reworkings of the functionalism of the Modern Movement. Still, the industrial elements partly maintain an appearance and a functional purpose.

• When it comes to interior design there was a preference for using objects familiar to the industry; for example, containers used in the chemical industry as flower vases. This is because the objective was the use of industrial aesthetics. A goal that would give people a familiarity between the industrial workspace and where they would live or entertain themselves. The movement sought to give everything an industrial appearance.

Function

• Before the Modern Movement, the functions of the building were hidden, and afterward, the functions and uses were formally highlighted and flexibility was prioritized.
• This flexibility means that the building must be a catalyst for activities and technical services must be proposed and clearly defined. The Pompidou Center in Paris by Piano & Rogers is a complete example of the High Tech style. The supporting structure, the ventilation and air conditioning ducts, the escalator, the transformers; everything in sight. At the time it was completely revolutionary since the vents that were previously hidden are now in plain sight.
• Another aspect of High Tech armature is the renewed confidence that technology could ameliorate the world. This is particularly evident in Kenzō Tange's technically sophisticated building project made and/or planned in Japan during the building boom of the 1960s. Few of those projects were actually transformed into buildings.
• In the eighties, High Tech formally evolved to make it difficult to distinguish from the rest of postmodern architecture. Many of his themes and ideas were absorbed into the language of the other postmodern architectural currents and the distinction ceased.
• The buildings were built mainly in Europe and North America. After the destruction of many significant buildings in Europe during WWII, rebuilding them was very problematic. The architects had to decide whether to replicate the historical models or replace them with modern materials and new aesthetics.
• Scientific and technological innovation in the 1970s had a great impact on society. Overexcited by the space race and the landing of man on the moon by Neil Armstrong in 1969, along with the maddening innovation of military technology. These developments hinted in people's minds that everything could be solved with technological advancement and development. Technological instruments began to be common to all of society and this generated an acceptance of opting for installations, load-bearing structures, and exposed roofs. These High Tech constructions were more and more visible to the average man. He developed a love for technology displayed by High Tech Architecture.

Evolution

• With the oil crisis of 1973, many of these buildings became impossible to maintain due to the high use of metallic materials and glass that not only implied rapid aging but also enormous energy expenditure. The Pompidou Center, which was recognized as an exponent of the new trend, quickly became an example of what should not be done. 
• The main High Tech makers Foster, Rogers, Piano, Thomas Herzog, Francoise-Hélène Jourdan, and Gilles Perroudindecided to re-found High Tech to face the new problems that began to plague humanity in the early '90s. For this, in 1993, during the Florence International Conference on solar energy in architecture and urban planning, they founded the READ group that receives support from the European Community.
• Among the purposes of reading was the deepening of the use of renewable energy in construction. And they begin to propose ideas rather friendly projects with the environment where the top exponents of what today is called sustainable architecture were the Commerzbank building in Frankfurt of the Meno Foster and Cultural Center Mont Cenis of Jourda & Perraudin in the late 90 These were considered the first Eco-tech as an evolution of the High-tech movement in what is currently called Sustainable Architecture. creates a very new aesthetic: glorifying the fascination for continuous technological innovation.